Tuesday, January 19, 2010

to sum it up, I had a great time. It was fun to be a part of something so essential to our community and truly get the opportunity to see how the judicial system works. Fascinating, even if at times a little boring.

I am extremely grateful to Hayley, Brittany, Tamra and Jen who took my kids so Jeremy didn't have to abandon work. Not only were you willing but had nice things to say about my kids after it was done! Just as a thank you, each of you have at least one funny story to remember the event by, I think collectively there was a locked bathroom door experience courtesy of Lauren! I am also grateful to the many others who offered to help out. I can't tell you how loved I feel.

Most days were typical, unfortunately I don't get to share what cases I worked on, there were five, but I can tell you of a heart stopping trip to jury duty!

I need to say this up front, Jeremy LOVES his car. I have come to call the quirks "personality." His car has an abundance of it! I really don't like driving it for multiple reasons, the biggest is simply because getting into it is a little on the difficult side. The driver side door does not open from the outside. For Jeremy's long arms it is not a problem, he reaches in through the rear drivers side door and can grab the inside handle of the driver's door to pop the door open. For me and my short arms I can not manage such a feat. I have to reach over from the passenger side door pop it open, then run around the car. If the car jostles too much the door will click just enough that I have to do it again...and again...and again. The other option is just to climb over from the passenger side into the driver's seat. Depending on my wardrobe it isn't too difficult, just a little on the embarrassing side. The next bit of personality which is actually relevant to my story is that the driver's side window doesn't roll down. Image driving through a toll both (we live near a few toll bridges!). My mom borrowed the car and had to travel across one. Imagine her surprise as she pulls up to the toll booth and can't figure out how to roll down the window to pay the toll. She quickly remembered and made the necessary adjustment of pulling forward enough to be able to open the door and pay the toll to the operator who is wondering what is going on!

So it started on Thursday morning as I was happily driving to do my civil duty. The windows were fogged up so I had a little bit of a difficult time with my peripheral vision. I used the windshield wipers to get the morning dew off the front and it kind of smeared more than cleared. I was more or less able to see and drive safely forward. Then I turned on to the freeway and had to merge. BIG PROBLEM! I couldn't see and traffic I was merging into. Both side windows were glistening brightly in the sun and the side mirror was covered in dew as well, not to mention the rear view mirror was useless since the back window was covered as well! I turned on my blinker tried several times to look and see who I was going to crash into but couldn't. Closed my eyes and went for it! Phew, there was no sound of crunching metal. I started freaking out when it dawned on me that I HAD to get over two lanes of traffic because the freeway was splitting and I needed to be on the other side. I think I used up a weeks of earned blessings as I tried to responsibly change lanes with no help from visual confirmation. I made it, only to be behind a garbage truck. I used up enough of my luck so I didn't feel I should push it by trying to go around. So as little specks of garbage kept flying at me, I had to remind myself to be grateful for the safety I had managed thus far. A few miles later the windows and mirror started clearing and I could make out enough to see that it was going to be OK and my heart could decelerate. Then I look up to see a black thing moving on the edge of the garbage truck, as it fell off the garbage truck going about 50mph I realized this was not garbage but a living breathing cat. It rolled and rolled towards my ever nearing car. I steered as close as I could to the left side lane markers and closed my eyes sending a quick prayer that I would not feel the inevitable bump. I never did. I looked out the passenger side mirror to see the cat running along the shoulder with it's tail up in the air like it had just gotten off the bus at his expected stop. Apparently I have a very strong heart because I thought for sure that was more than I could handle for the 15 minute drive from home to the court house.

Then I immediately called Jeremy to explain that he is lucky he has a 4 minute commute all on city streets otherwise I would insist that we find a way to get him a car that wasn't a death trap! Another realization that came to me is that when he drives the van, he waits for a very long time to use the windshield wipers, it drives me nuts, but I can't say anything since he seems to be okay with it. I simply choose to look out the passenger side window to avoid irritation. After driving his car I realized that he is simply used to his wipers that work better when you don't use them.

Enough about bashing his car, like I said in the beginning, he loves his car, and I love giving him a bad time about it. I am grateful we have a second car and it is, more or less, safe and reliable. The things that are hard for me are things he has a routine for, like I always wondered why he keeps a dirty old towel in the back seat...it is to wipe down all the mirrors and windows before he drives!

1 comment:

Holy smokes! What a story! I'm so impressed that you did your civic duty of jury duty without trying to get out of it! I'm also glad you saved up those blessings so that you were able to arrive safely to it! :)